The second week began with rain.
Not the gentle spring rain that nourished gardens and made everything smell fresh. This was cold autumn rain that turned Lumeria's cobblestones slick and made everyone huddle indoors. The kind that seeped into bones and made old injuries ache.
Marron had been up since dawn for her weekly evaluation with Callista. The numbers had shifted slightly—saturation increasing, which could mean deeper integration or creeping corruption. Callista had documented it neutrally, made notes, scheduled extra monitoring for next week. "Not alarming yet," she'd said. "But worth watching."
Then combat training with Vex in the rain. Two hours of footwork on slippery stone, learning how the Blade's precision had to adjust for wet conditions. Marron had fallen three times, bruising her hip and shoulder. Vex had been unsympathetic. "Enemies don't wait for good weather."
